With the increasing use and development of drip irrigation systems, various forms of emitters have been devised for reducing the fluid pressure in a conduit to a low, trickle output rate. Two general types of such emitters may be described as (1) those which are connected "in-line" with the supply conduit; and (2) those which are attached to and extract fluid from the conduit. With emitters of the first category, it is necessary to cut the conduit and attach it to opposite ends of the emitter; a process that is generally carried out in a factory as part of the manufacturer's system assembly procedure. Such a system has many disadvantages including relatively high initial cost, the need to eliminate residual stresses after assembly and before installation in the field, and the time consuming and expensive process of emitter replacement in the field. The second category of emitter, which in various forms has been found to be preferable over the in-line type, has utilized a barb type, frusto-conical inlet member that extends from the emitter body. Heretofore, to install emitters with such inlet members, it was necessary to first provide a hole in the hose or conduit to which the emitter was to be attached and then force the emitter's inlet member into the conduit hole. Such a procedure was more often performed in the field and proved to be a tedious hand-type operation that involved: (1) determining the desired hole location; (2) creating the hole; and then (3) forcing the emitter inlet member through the preformed hole. Often, it was possible for an installer of a large number of emitters in a system to make an error by forming a hole in a hose or conduit and then forgetting to install an emitter, a mistake that often had costly results.
One object of the present invention is to provide an improved inlet member for a drip emitter that solves the aforesaid problems and enables the emitter to be connected to a conduit without preforming a hole therein to receive it.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved inlet member for a drip emitter that will punch out its own opening in a plastic hose or conduit of a drip irrigation system and which, when fully installed, will assure adequate flow to the emitter through one or more openings.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hand tool for installing a drip emitter with an improved inlet member on a plastic conduit that may or may not contain water under pressure.
Yet another object of my invention is to provide an emitter with an improved inlet member that is particularly well adapted for high volume production at low unit cost and which also greatly reduces the cost of installing the emitter on a conduit of a drip irrigation system.